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A lovely Christmas Decoration

These shimmer pots are my latest purchase from yankeedoodle.co.uk, I saw them whilst I was having a browse and thought they would make a pretty Christmas decoration.

The shimmer pots made by Yankee Candle are tea light holders, they measure approx 3 inches tall by 2½ inches wide and are made of two layers,the inner layer is made from red coloured glass and the outer layer is made from frosted glass. You can't really tell when looking on the outside but the red layer has clear parts which are Santa, Christmas Trees and Star shapes. This means that when you place a lit tea light inside these shapes are illuminated, they also appear to dance around with the flickering of the candle flame.

I have to say the photo really doesn't do these tea light holders justice and when they are lit with the only the Christmas Tree lights on in a room they look absolutely wonderful.

When I bought these I got a set of four, but I only wanted two of them so my Mum shared the cost with me and had two of them as well. I took her's round to her yesterday afternoon and she immediately lit them to see how they looked. She was as impressed with them as I was, even my Dad commented on them when he saw them.

Due to the height of them I think you could place votive or sampler sized candles in them but I'm not sure if the effect of the dancing pattern would be quite the same as the flame might be too high in the holder to light up the whole pattern.

If you decide to use a tea light in the shimmer pot you should get about 4 to 5 hours burn time from the candle. This means that it should last you for an evening before needing to be replaced.

To light a tea light in the shimmer pot I would recommend using a longer match if you are using matches, I have been using Cooks matches and because they are quite short and you are holding the match into the pot the flame burns up the match at the same time, meaning you might end up with singed fingers if you aren't quick.

I put the shimmer pots on coasters when they have a lit tea light in them just to protect the surface they are on.

I have found that once the flame has extinguished you need to let the tin holder of the tea light cool down before trying to remove and replace with a new one. This is due to the design of the pot which means the tea light fits very snugly when placed inside, and there is no way of getting it out without having to hold the tea light.

As I mentioned previously I bought my shimmer pots from Yankee Doodle where I paid £6.40 for 4 in the red with Santa on them.You can also get these in green and these have a snowman on them, however these are slightly more expensive at £10 for a set of 4.For £20 you can buy a set of 8 red pots which come with a box of Christmas Punch scented tea lights, although I think it might work out cheaper to buy two sets of 4 plus the tea lights separately as it is £5.99 for a box of 12 Christmas Punch tea lights.I have also seen these on Ebay for varying prices.